Good sea stories on Mad Mariner

[Doryman]

Mad Mariner is featuring the winners of its essay contest. Some good sea stories, but I bet Bob could top 'em all!

Warren

[NewMoon]

Here's my Sea Story, which I had to cut down to 500 words to enter in the Mad Mariner essay contest. It did not win, but it was fun trying.


Some years ago, we were on our first SE Alaska cruise in our C-Dory 22. We had worked our way north from Sitka, toward Cross Sound and Elfin Cove along the outside of Chichagof Island, and ducked inside some of the small islands just north of the Khaz peninsula via an intricate route called Piehle Passage. Went back outside maybe 15 miles further north at Imperial passage, and then turned back into protected waters at Lisianski Strait. Weather was fine, we loved that run.

Two weeks later we headed back south along the same route, anchoring for the night halfway down to Sitka. This time we had with us a guest, who had never seen waters any wilder than Lake Powell.

Next morning the SW wind was up to maybe 15 knots, but it didn't look too bad. We were inexperienced interpreting barometer changes for weather prediction, and were out of weather radio range.

We proceeded down through Piehle Passage, poked our nose out of the narrow opening, and found we were heading into 8-10 foot relatively gentle waves. Thought they might be just swells piling up as they came in to shallower water there, and if we crossed them to deeper water it might be OK to head SSE on the outside, down toward Sitka. Turned out to be not such a fine idea.

Just outside the narrow exit into open water, we manage to get kelp wrapped around our 90hp outboard, shutting off the water flow and activating the overheat alarm. So now we’re in big waves, without power. I fire up the 9.9hp kicker (it started right away, thankfully), but then we could go only basically straight out into the waves while the big motor cooled down. So I sit out in the rain steering the kicker, watching the bow go up and down ever higher for maybe 15 minutes, while every so often Cindy tries the big motor, until finally it comes on without the alarm. By this time we're a mile or so offshore, and the waves are getting really big. I come back into the cabin, and we try to figure out what to do.

Don't want to head SSE to Sitka, because there would be 15 miles of unprotected water and the waves are already up to 15+ feet. Wind is only maybe 20 knots, but later we learned that the waves tend to pile up especially big in that area (where the bottom comes up from very deep to only 100 feet or so) when the wind comes from certain directions. After all, there’s nothing west of us until the Aleutians.

We don't want to go back into Piehle Passage, because of the kelp, and the narrow rocky entrance. We decide to go with the wind and waves, NNW 8 miles to Khaz Bay, a much wider opening. Heading that way is tricky, as over toward the shore there are big rocks just below the surface. They create huge explosions of spray when the water is moving up and down that far. On and off from the massive wave tops we can see these boomers, looming out there in the rain. The waves keep driving us closer toward them, and we decide we'll never make it on this course, so we have to bear left. The size and steepness of the waves keep us from going just a bit left, so we have to tack WSW to gain sea room, then come back to our desired NNW course. After a mile or two of WSW, we turn back NNW, eventually get to the mouth of Khaz Bay, and slide in to safe anchorage.

We had estimated the following seas at 15-25 feet. While Cindy was navigating, I had been concentrating on steering and continually adjusting the throttle, so we would climb up the back of a wave, slow down and mush through the top of it, then maintain our heading down to the next trough, not going so fast as to stick our nose into the next wave. The C-Dory was so good! We never once took green water over the bow, in maybe 1.5 or 2 hours of this (we were too busy to look at a watch - sure wish I had videotape). I would hate to try the same thing in our present much heavier deep-V boat.

At anchor later, whilst thanking our lucky stars, we were scanning the radio (still out of VHF weather broadcast range) and listened in on two commercial fishermen who had been out in the same stuff in a 38 and a 54-footer. They clearly had not enjoyed it. We broke in, told of our adventure, and asked them how big they thought the seas had been. They said 20 to 30 feet, with an occasional 35. Thank you again, C-Dory!

Over the next three days we holed up, waiting for the seas to moderate. We tried poking outside three times, and each time came back in with our tail between our legs. We called fishermen who were on the outside for conditions reports, and finally got one that said waves were down to halfway reasonable. We asked him if he thought we’d be OK in our 22-footer, and he said yes. As we came out Imperial passage heading north, he called us back. He had been talking to his mate, and revised his opinion. “You could make it, but it sure won’t be a cake-walk.” Two hours of 10-15 footers later, with our hearts still up in our throats, we gratefully rounded the nun into the mouth of Lisianski, and began to relax. Pulled into Pelican, refueled, and found we were down to 5 gallons of gas – maybe fifteen miles worth.

Our guest has not been back to cruise SE Alaska to this day.



Well, the truth is our guest finally did come back to SE Alaska last summer, after 11 years. He had a ball, and we didn't try to kill him this time.

[Hunkydory]

Warren, thanks for the link. Read and enjoyed all those stories, but my personal favorite was the one that didn't make the cut for the Mad Mariner and instead was told here by Richard. Would like to hear the long version. See that He doesn't live to far from Cokeville, so maybe I will.

Richard, when we cruised that area in 2007 we could get VHF weather reports just inside the mouth of Khaz Bay, but further north had to go several miles out of Imperial Passage to do so. We also had routes set up for Piehle Passage and the outside route you took. Remember making sure the routes stayed clear of the breaking areas you so vividly described. We were in 10 to 12 foot seas in close to shore and that was bad enough and you could hardly find a worse spot to get seaweed wrapped in the prop in those conditions coming out of Piehle Passage. Did you spend the three days waiting inside Khaz Bay at Double Cove, which is just across a small portage from Sister Lake? We anchored out a gale in Sister Lake, but Double Cove looked good too. If caught in the same situation don't know if I would have had the ability to get us out of it like you managed, so greatly admire your ability to do so and share how you did with the rest of us. Would like to get together with you sometime and hear more of your experiences.

I'm somewhat bewildered that a thread such as this only has a couple of comments, when over 20 comments are generated on a thread about peoples poor vehicle driving habits.

Jay

[NewMoon]

Hi Jay,

Thanks for the kind words! Actually this writeup is my original longer version - close to 1000 words. After I chopped it down to 500 it didn't seem as interesting, to me anyway. The adventure took place in 1996, when VHF WX reception over there was nonexistent (at least for us).

When we first got back inside in Khaz Bay we anchored in Double Cove. As our nerves were already pretty well shattered, it was not fun at all to find that the anchor was not holding and we needed to re-set. Then we were OK. We broke out the gin bottle and turned on the VHF scan. That's how we got to talking with the two fishermen about wave sizes.

The next day we went north and anchored in Dry Pass, inside Portlock Harbor. Over the next couple of days we went out through Imperial Passage three times to check conditions, burning 10 miles worth of fuel each time. We had never taken the fuel down so close to empty before, so we weren't sure how much was left, and we began to worry that if we tried many more look-see's we might run too low.

We finally got the "OK" from the passing fisherman, and were almost in open water again when he called back to say it wouldn't be a cakewalk. At that point we figured we had to continue or risk running out of gas. I hoped that if we at least got well inside Lisianski Strait we might be pretty safe, and could maybe get a tow if we ran out, but we did make it to Pelican under power. When we refueled (up against that tall fixed pier at low tide!) we watched and calibrated the fuel gauges as we added gallons.

Then we tied up at the floats and went up to a nice peaceful warm breakfast on shore. We must have looked pretty bedraggled when the waitress came over to help us - she asked if we were "in for the closing".

I finally had the weather forecast (fairly light NE wind) and the nerve to run up the west side of Chichagof again ten years later, and VHF WX reception was pretty good most places we went. Haven't yet been into Sister Lake - nice anchorage? Last summer we had good enough weather to go around Yakobi Island from Elfin Cove to Pelican.

I'm sure I must have seen Hunky Dory at least a couple of times in 2007. Looks like you've been all over Southeast, and further north as well. Heading up this year?

[Hunkydory]

Richard, many times on this site the subject of how bad of sea conditions can the CD22 handle been brought up and discussed. Other than the factory photos of one crossing the Columbia Bar none have even been close to what you described and those photos were taken with the Coast Guard Station just around the point with possible rescue with in minutes. In the wilderness area off Chichagof Island if there is to be any timely resue it will only come from a fishing boat and we saw only two other boats while in this area in six days. Says a lot about your abilities and the CD22 that you were able to manage these seas with just the kicker untill you got the main going again. Even with the main back its amazing to me you road out the 20 to 30 foot seas coming into Khaz Bay especially having to track further back out to sea to avoid breaking area. Still wonder how you were able to get the seaweed out of the prop. Was anchoring or sea anchor an option while trying to get the main back in operation. We carry 600 feet of rode just in case for a situation like you were in and am thinking about a sea anchor too for buying time to keep off breakers or rocks. Your Story could not better illustrate how capable a CD22 can be in the hands of a very competent cool Captain.

We too anchored in Dry Pass, inside Portlock Harbor and used Imperial Passage for weather checks. We ended up going out Dry Pass at 4 AM with the right tide on the way north. Going south around Hill Island and just before entering Imperial Passage is where we ran into our roughest steep seas of about 12 feet. Still can't imagine 20 to 30 footers. 12 feet around all those rocks took all the fun out of it for us.

This video is us checking for weather out of Imperial Passage while trying to go back north and what Dry Passage looked like when dry. Was scouting it for passage the next morning and anchorage for night.
http://www.mydeo.com/videorequest.asp?XID=4951&CID=145479

This video is going out of Dry Pass at 4 AM and shows area to Lisianski Straight where you came close to running out of fuel. We carried an extra 50 gallons so fuel wouldn't be a problem, but that much extra weight for you might have been even worse in those big seas.
http://www.mydeo.com/videorequest.asp?XID=10495&CID=144896

Sister Lake is especially at the head a beautiful place and the remotest area a boater could achieve in a very remote area. Many good anchorages, but is difficult to access with the narrow tidal entrances. Worked out well for us with the shallow water draft of the CD22. Mirror Harbor and White Sulfur Hot Springs is another great destination in this area. We much prefer and feel more comfortable with accessing the shallow water tidal areas with intricate passages with there dangers then dealing with the big seas, which is just the opposite of most boater or at least sailors. We will only do the big open water as a necessity to achieving where we really want to go.

Probably won't make it back to the Chichagof Island area untill 2011 which is after I'm retired. Don't want to cruise this area again untill time waiting on better conditions is never a problem. Next time up there want to explore that area centering out of Pelican and Elfin Cove for a couple months and definitely on the agenda is circling Yakobi Island like you already have. When we were there didn't dare chance it. Thought we might end up in sea conditions just like your story decribed.

Can't reiterate enough on how much we enjoyed your story. Thanks much for sharing it.

Jay